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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, March 1, 2013
michigandaily.com
CRIME
Suspect in
three sex
crimes to
be evicted
TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily
" Senior forward Rachel Sheffer (44) retrieves the ball during the game against Northwestern Thursday night. Michigan won 55-50.
ACADEMICS
.as LSA syllabi archived
Student gov't
leaders work with
University
By GIACOMO BOLOGNA
Daily StaffReporter
After two years of work by
the LSA Student Government,
LSA students can finally design
a course schedule with no exams
through a new website that
archives past class syllabi.
LSA senior Pallavi Abraham,
LSA-SG's Academic Relations
Officer, said the website, which
has been a collaborative effort
between LSA-SG and the col-
lege's administration, has been a
long time coming, but time well
spent.
"It's done,"Abraham said. "It's
up and running - the website's
live."
Many syllabi are already avail-
able on the site currently and
departments are still uploading
more.
"Obviously, professors aren't
required to upload their syllabi
in any way. Yet we hope that,
as more and more departments
start doing it, professors will
start to see the usefulness of it
and ideally it'll eventually be an
all-inclusive syllabi archive," LSA
junior Jason van den Boogaart, a
member of LSA-SG, said.
LSA Associate Dean Philip
Deloria sent out an e-mail to LSA
department heads about the web-
site, noting that it was "simple,
streamlined, and easy to use."
"We view this tool as provid-
ing real value to departments,
students, and faculty alike, and
encourage you to begin the pro-
cess of establishing a syllabus
archive for your department or
program," he wrote.
Abraham said faculty mem-
bers were intially concerned
about the intellectual property
rights of their syllabi and that
students would expect faculty to
adhere to a past semesters' sylla-
bi. However, the system address-
es both of these problems, she
said. Using the system requires a
University account to login, and a
disclaimer on the top of the page
tells students these syllabi are
not necessarily in use.
Abraham -said -she realized
providing the syllabi for the cur-
rent semester before registration
wouldn't be possible after speak-
ing with outgoing LSA Dean Ter-
rence McDonald last year. He
said McDonald told him due to
the autonomy faculty have in the
college, requiring syllabi up so
early would not be feasible.
Nonetheless,vanden Boogaart
said this will be a tool available
for years to come as the LSA
administration is heavily invest-
ed in the project.
"It's something that together
we worked on and created," he
said. "It's more than just what
the students wanted, it's actually
a really good balance of what the
professors wanted, the curriculum
wanted and the students wanted."
Making syllabi available
before students registered was
a campaign promise of Manish
Parikh, current president of the
Central Student Government.
"I think there has been some
confusion as whether or not this
has been an (LSA-SG) or CSG
project and I think that this is
really a great example of some-
thing that LSA student govern-
ment has been working on slowly
and created a beautiful product,"
she said.
Parikh said he was proud of
the work of LSA-SG, and hopes a
See SYLLABI, Page 3
Zaragon Place
resident seen
moving out of apt.
By MATTHEW JACKONEN
Daily StaffReporter
After three students report-
ed that they were sexually
assaulted at the same seventh-
floor Zaragon Place apartment,
building administrators are
evicting the assault suspect
and taking preventative mea-
sures to ensure similar inci-
dents don't occur and police are
investigating the connection
between the two cases.
Jim Adams, the property
manager at the East University
apartment building, said upon
hearing news of the sexual
assaults, building employees
immediately began the process
of evicting the suspect. While
building employees have seen
him moving out, Adams said
management will continue the
formal eviction process.
"We have already started
eviction proceedings, but we
also have reason to believe he
has already moved out," Adams
said. "As a precautionary,
regardless, we're going to go
through with an eviction pro-
ceeding."
According to the crime alert
released by University Police on
Wednesday night, the suspect
is a younger-looking 31-year-
old Asian male with short black
hair and brown eyes. He is
between 5'6" and 57" tall and
weighs 140 pounds.
Adams expressed concern
that Zaragon officials were only
notified of the incidents last
night when the crime alert was
sent out. He said the building's
security has been briefed on the
incident and are doing their best
to promote asafe environment.
"It's the first episode of this
nature that has happened here,
and we certainly don't hope to
have any more," Adams said.
"It's important people become
educated on the dangers of
drinking alcohol, minors
drinking alcohol and even more
importantly, for people that are
not minors providing for and
drinking with students that are
minors."
Adams added that Zara-
gon Place will be reviewing
its apartment guest policies to
determine whether changes
need to be made to prevent par-
ties from getting out of hand.
"Obviously students are
going to get together, but we
just want to make sure it's
going to be in a controlled envi-
-ronment - which it always has
been here," he said. "I don't
consider this to be an issue with
guests, but one person can ruin
that. We're very disappointed,
obviously."
The suspect's description
does not match the suspect
currently being investigated for
the West Quad sexual assault in
January.
University police are still
See EVICTED, Page 3
ANN ARBOR
Kunselman sees
problems with
A2 taxi policies
HANDS-ON ART
City council
member at odds
with limo services
By MATTHEW JACKONEN
Daily StaffReporter
After taxi drivers were
implicated in three different
crimes since January, the Ann
Arbor City Council has been
at odds with taxicab and limo
companies in defining what
type of licensing is right for the
tree town.
After a student reported
she was raped by a taxi driver,
Councilmember Stephen Kun-
selman (D-Ward 3) spoke out
at the Feb. 4 Ann Arbor City
Council meeting. He said the
city has a serious problem with
unlicensed taxicabs and "rogue
limos."
On Feb. 10, almost a week
later, a 23-year-old woman
said she was touched in a sex-
ual manner by a Blue Cab taxi
driver. Blue Cab said the driver
denies this report and reas-
sured customers that the driver
& would not be allowed to drive
taxis in the future. Police then
acknowledged that a similar
incident occurred on Jan.23.
The city has been unable
to regulate certain companies
since they operate throughout
the state of Michigan rather
than just Ann Arbor. A 1990 law
states that cities do not have
the authority to regulate com-
panies that operate both inside
and outside of specific munici-
pal boundaries.
Kunselman said he believes
the problem lies in the issue
of rogue limousines operating
with state - not city - licenses.
"The general public doesn't
really understand what's hap-
pening, and so they assume
everybody's a taxi," Kunselman
said.
Kunselman said the under-
lying issue is the city doesn't
know who the drivers in these
cases. Thus, companies are
allowed to operate within the
city's boundaries without the
city's knowledge of the driver's
identity.
"As a parent, we tell our kids
not to get in cars with strang-
ers,"Kunselman said. "We have
See TAXI, Page 3
TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily
Law student Shainee Shah hennas a tattoo on the hand of law student Lora MacDonald at an event by the South Asian
Law Student Association in Htchins Hall Thursday.
GOVERNMENT
* *"
e uestration problem atic
for students in work study
ACADEMICS
Is a college
degree
worth it?
Expert, student
say University
educaiton offers
unique experiences
By CONNOR ZARKOWSKI
For the Daily
Many college students' par-
ents could have started a career
with just a high school diploma
and a positive attitude. Today,
however, University students and
employees are becoming more
aware of how a college experi-
ence can lead to a much more
fruitful professional life.
With 68.3 percent of 2011
high-school graduates enroll-
ing in colleges or universities,
its becoming harder and harder
to deny the significance of an
undergraduate degree. A recent
article in The New York Times
reported that a degree is becom-
ing the norm for jobs such as file
clerks, which did not require the
degree a decade ago.
Lynne Sebille-White, senior
assistant director of employer
relations at the University's
Career Center, said a bachelor's
degree from the University dem-
See DEGREE, Page 3
Federal cuts to
severely decrease
allotted funding
By STEPHANIE SHENOUDA
Daily StaffReporter
The inaction of Washing-
ton D.C. to prevent massive
automatic spending cuts that
are triggered on Friday should
perk the interest of the 3,363
University students utilizing
work study as part of their
financial aid packages.
The threat of federal seques-
tration - over a billion dollars
in across-the-board cuts that
roll out over 10 years - was
intended to force lawmakers
into a compromise to address
government spending. The
White House released a state-
by-state breakdown of what
the the cuts would affect that
indicated about 2,490 fewer
low-income students in Michi-
gan would receive financial aid
and about 1,300 fewer students
will get work-study jobs.
Kurt Weiss, public informa-
tion officer for the state's bud-
get office, said the becoming a
reality is a concern of the state
legislature.
"Obviously we're concerned
with any kinds of cuts," Weiss
said. "We understand that
these are real cuts happening
See SEQUESTRATION, Page 3
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